About 24 hours since it suffered an upset loss to Texas A&M, Alabama learned that its official road back to the BCS national championship will require two unbeaten teams to pick up their first loss over the next three weeks.

The Crimson Tide ranks No. 4 in the latest BCS standings, which were revealed tonight on ESPN. Ahead of it are No. 1 Kansas State, No. 2 Oregon and No. 3 Notre Dame.

Six of the top nine teams hail from the SEC, but none are in the top two, putting the conference's streak of six consecutive national championships in peril.

Alabama, of course, needs to keep up its end of the bargain and win its remaining three games if it hopes to sneak into the title game. The Crimson Tide faces Western Carolina on Saturday, Auburn on Nov. 24 and, if victorious over the Tigers, No. 5 Georgia in the SEC Championship.

If Alabama wins out but doesn't catch the necessary breaks, it would represent the SEC in the Sugar Bowl (Jan. 2). In that scenario, ESPN's Brad Edwards projected that Alabama would face Clemson.

Two-thirds of the BCS equation comes from human polls, of which Alabama came away with an average ranking of 4.5. The 59 coaches who vote in the USA Today/coaches poll ranked Alabama fifth while the Harris poll placed Alabama at No. 4.

The other third stems from the average of six computer-driven polls. Alabama came away from those with a No. 5 ranking behind Notre Dame, Kansas State, Florida and Oregon.

When Alabama lost to LSU last season, it dropped to No. 3 behind the No. 1 Tigers and No. 2 Oklahoma State. It landed a spot back in the top two just two weeks later after the Cowboys lost at Iowa State, and maintained it the rest of the way despite not playing in the SEC title game.

This year, Alabama has one less week to work with and an additional team ahead of it that will need to suffer an upset. Neither Kansas State nor Notre Dame have to worry about a conference championship game.

"Two of the three national championship teams that I've coached both lost
a game," Alabama coach Nick Saban said Saturday. "This team still has an opportunity to win the West, go to the
SEC Championship game and have a chance to win the championship game.

"There is still a lot for this team to play for, and a lot for them to
set their mind to and recommit themselves to."